Mortal Kombat X Asia Pacific Championships 2015!!

To Mortal Kombat fans out there! Think you got what it takes to take it to the top and compete on the global stage? Well you're in luck, as the latest entry of the franchise; Mortal Kombat X, will have a qualifying tournament for the Asia Pacific Championships.

Beast of the East, in cooperation with Ingram Micro, Xmashed Gear, CouchWarriors, St. Games and Imperium have announced the Mortal Kombat X Asia Pacific Championships.

It will consist of qualifying tournaments (to be held in the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and Thailand) to determine the final four Kombatants who will compete for the South East Asia Championships in Bangkok Thailand. The Kombatants will stand to win a total of $10,000 USD worth of cash and prizes including the first prize of a fully paid trip to attend Evolution 2015 in Las Vegas, USA.

The first qualifying tournament is happening at Imperium eSports Bar here in the Philippines on May 9th 2015!

Succeeding qualifier tournament schedules are as follows:

• May 16, 2015 - Singapore Qualifier - St. Games @ Bugis+
• May 22-25, 2015 - Australia Qualifier - Battle Arena Melbourne
• June 20, 2015 - Thailand Qualifier - South East Asia Major

The finals will be held on June 21, 2015 at South East Asia Major in Thailand.

For Kombatants interested in participating as well as more details about the event, you can register via this link:

http://www.beastapac.com/events/mkac2015/

I'm excited and really happy that Mortal Kombat is getting alot of love this year. I might join in the qualifier tournament if ever, so see you there!!

Komikon X + ESGS = An Epic weekend recap

It's quite rare for me to have two back-to-back weekend events to attend, and last weekend is definitely an awesome way for me to end the week!! :D

First off; Komikon X!!

My small little company; Powerplay Wear, made its debut on Summer Komikon 2014, and I really found it fitting for it to return for Komikon 2014.

And this time, I brought something special along with me that I introduced back in Toycon 2014; the videogame sword replica collab project with Hello Knightmare by Louie. And I got me the Parallel Falchion from the game Fire Emblem: Awakening.

We setup the booth early on and despite the much more crammed space, the atmosphere in the event is simply... electric!! :D Here's a shot of our humble table that's crammed with stuff to sell!! :D

As soon as the crowd came rushing in, I had very little time to go around the event and cover it myself. I was too busy marketing our product and generally taking care of the booth. I'm simply glad that our products got alot of loving during Komikon!! And even if our replica swords didn't sell, they managed to get alot of curious onlookers to enjoy and appreciate the sword up close! :D

And one thing I love about Komikon, is that cosplayers are starting to get more and more accepted in the event! As a cosplayer, I love it as well, and I hope I can cosplay as one of the local komik characters that's in Komikon.

Sadly, as much as I enjoyed Komikon, I ended up with a very slim loot during the event. :( Since I could barely go around, and most exhibitors set-up late, I didn't get to buy alot of komiks during the event. :( Here's my Komikon 2014 loot:

Kanto Inc. compilation book
Story by: Joanah Tinio Calingo/Taga-Ilog
Art by: Kilayman

Dragon Breed Vol. 1
Story by: Maria Cornelia Damaso
Art by: Elmer Damaso

Pasig Book 2: Issue 4
Story & Art by: Taga-Ilog

I've yet to read all of my Komikon loot (days have been busy with me doing client work and preparing for the next convention), but I'm simply surprised with the amount of amazing works coming out of Komikon!! The creators are really putting out their best foot forward, making sure the readers get their money's worth, and its a win for us fans. I look forward to next year's Komikon releases!! :D

But the absolute best loot I got during Komikon, wasn't even a komik itself, but this:

This lovely piece of art was a limited edition print run by Mr. Carlo Vergara, creator of the popular superhero; Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

Seeing the piece in person was simply breathtaking, and considering I'm a huge fan of the style of Alphonse Mucha, and I'm proud to be hanging this wonderful art on my wall. Mr. Vergara even made a nice Certificate of Authenticity, which is a really nice touch.

Moving on to day 2; which was ESGS!!

It was a gaming centric event that focused more on e-sports and videogames. I definitely appreciate the effort put into it, and I hope the event grows bigger next year, but as of now, its a little bit fewer in attendance than Komikon. 

I was finally able to try out the local games made for the Occulus, and safe to say, it does show potential. However most of the games presented during the ESGS, does lack some polish (with controls not exactly responsive, the map layout is confusing and abit too large) however it can only get better in the future. I look forward to seeing more locally made content soon!

One thing I do appreciate though is that gaming cosplay is becoming more and more mainstream here in the Philippines:

Whew!! What a weekend!! Still having some weekend hangovers due to the epicness, but I definitely had tons of fun!! Till next time!! :D

Travelling Gundam Diaries - ToyCon 2014 and Foodtrip with Travelling Hello Kitty!!

As always, here's another look at where Travelling Gundam is in the Metro!! Went to ToyCon 2014, and although he may not have taken much pics with toys, he did get lots of lovin from cosplayers!!

Another thing to note, was Warner Bros. Philippines was nice enough to bring the actual costumes worn by the actors of the hit film Rurouni Kenshin, at ToyCon!! Just in time to promote the upcoming sequel here in the Philippines. And Travelling Gundam wasted no time to get a pic with the costume. :D

A few days after ToyCon, we got a modem upgrade from our local internet provider; PLDT. It was a modem+WiFi router in one. Thankfully Travelling Gundam was there to help.

Internet speeds at home got abit more decent after installation and reception got stronger. Hopefully it won't give me anymore headaches just like in the past. Then my Travelling Gundam went on a foodie date with his companion; Travelling Hello Kitty!!

One of the best finds they got was that ChocNut chocolate drink which was on sale at Ho-Land in St. Francis Square!! You can read more about it on my significant other's post here: http://adventuresofaladyexplorer.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/spotted-choc-nut-milk-chocolate-drink/

Good thing they both packed CarbTrim, to help keep the carbs at bay, as they both enjoy their foodtrip together! :D

But before I leave, I'm happy to announce that Travelling Gundam is about to get an upgrade soon. From being an Advance Grade (AG), he's about to get more articulation now that he's gonna be upgraded to a High Grade (HG) kit soon. :D

My Sub-Zero cosplay debut @ ToyCon 2014!!

It's been a long time coming, and it finally happened. I finally cosplayed as my favorite ice-wielding Lin Kuei ninja; Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat last weekend at ToyCon Philippines 2014!! :D

What started off as a crazy "what-if" idea, became a passion project of mine, which would go under a great deal of planning, having the suit made, and physical preparation to look the part. Just to give you guys an idea of how much I had to bulk up before I cosplayed, here's me before I cosplayed as Sub:

This was me back in 2010 (which was 4 years ago). As you can imagine, I'm just a typical gamer geek who can only hope to cosplay Sub-Zero decently back then. :( Not only do I not look fit (or convincing enough to be a Kombatant for that matter), but even my arms are so thin and small:

So cosplaying as Sub-Zero then was out of the question. Add in the fact that I'm an introverted guy (which alot of people don't seem to believe nowadays), I can only WISH I could cosplay. However, a childhood friend of mine, along with other amazing people I met, inspired me to slowly start my journey into cosplaying. And thus started my secret personal project: to cosplay as Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat.

It started out quite hilariously. I just went all low-cost cosplay as a start.

But this little thing, sparked an interest in me to finally jump in and start taking cosplay a little bit more seriously than before. And so I went online and jumped into a couple of local Philippine cosplay communities and lucky enough for me, someone was nice enough to teach me the ropes and introduce me to a couple of key individuals who would soon help me in realising my dream of cosplaying as Sub-Zero. She would later become a good friend of mine; Louie of Hello Knightmare by Louie, is also responsible for the amazing Masterswords we sold last ToyCon on our booth.

And so, I slowly upgraded my Sub-Zero cosplay costume, by starting off with his mask. And for that I enlisted the help of Nimoy from Kamen Rider Custom Mask. He was highly recommended for his amazing work in making replica Power Ranger helms, and so I took the chance by having him make the mask, and lemme tell you I wasn't disappointed at all with the result.

I loved everything about the mask, from the quality of the sculpt, to the level of detail in that thing. And so, after having the mask made, I had my suit made next. And there's only one person that my friend recommended for their level of detail and amazing work with Spiderman costumes; Kino Kaoru.

Now this one took awhile, as there we're tons of people lining up to have their costumes made by the awesome team of Kino Kaoru and his wife, so I waited for quite sometime for this to be made. While waiting I went for another low-cost cosplay alternative for the suit (thanks to some online tutorial)

I also took the time to prepare myself physically and bulk up. Thanks to my cousin (who is a body-builder and moonlights as a bouncer at a club), I got myself bigger (although I got my waist a little bit too big for comfort), and my arms definitely improved. 

As for the suit itself, it may have taken sometime for my suit to be finished, but the result was well-worth the wait:

And as soon as I got the suit, the first thing I did was have my photographer friend; Edwin Francisco, come over and start taking photos of me wearing the suit. We did our photoshoot indoors, as I was unfortunately suffering from fever then, but the results were definitely awesome to say the least:

You can read more about our photoshoot on his blog Capture Clicks.

And the big day finally arrived; ToyCon. I was actually an exhibitor then, but I was contemplating whether or not I'd go cosplay on the final day, as I was still sick with fever. My significant other suggested I try anyway, as it is just one day anyway. And so I went ahead and cosplayed on the last day of ToyCon 2014.

And it couldn't have been any better, as I got reunited with a childhood friend of mine, who also happens to be into cosplaying. He is also one of my inspirations as to why I got into cosplay in the first place; Mr. Dan Geromo, who is famous locally in the Philippines as SpiderDan for his awesome Spider-man cosplays!! :D

I also got to meet fellow Mortal Kombat cosplayers, who also attended ToyCon!! I even met a fellow Sub-Zero cosplayer too!!

photo taken from Arkadymac.com

I ended up having lots of fun with both fans, and fellow cosplayers at the event. It was definitely an experience for me. :D

Kinda sucks I didn't bring a camera with me, I would love to have taken selfies with fellow cosplayers!! :D It was definitely an experience for me, and I'm so glad to be finally cosplayed myself. Thank you so much to everyone who made this dream of mine possible namely; Nimoy of Kamen Rider Custom Mask, Kino Kaoru, Hello Knightmare by Louie and Edwin Francisco of Capture Clicks. A special shout-out as well to my significant other who supported me with this crazy project of mine all the way thru, you helped me realize my dream. It was an amazing journey and one that I intend to continue for as long as I can. :D Till the next cosplay convention!! :D